


Mind-Forg'd Manacles Reference

by needleyecandy



Series: Manacles [2]
Category: Thor - All Media Types
Genre: reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 07:10:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1931463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needleyecandy/pseuds/needleyecandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Character list, glossary, and other notes to accompany 'Mind-Forg'd Manacles.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind-Forg'd Manacles Reference

Disclaimer: I did read a lot on this period, but there's a lot of inconsistencies and things that are just not known. I tried to be accurate when possible (except for the invasion in chapter 1 that never came to fruition) but a lot of this is me picking whatever theory works best for my story.

 _Characters_ (people who appear in just one or two lines and do not recur are not listed here)

 

Ado- one of Vercingetorix’s men

Agapios- a Greek slave, Marius' tutor

Alaca- Loki's foster mother

Allcallorred- the Venicone king who succeeds Pidarnoin; he is hostile to the Taexali

Aquilina- Traianus' preferred prostitute

Aurelius- Thor's name while he lives as a Roman

Balbinus- owner of the brothel where Marius and Aurelius see a prostitute

Baldr- Thor's elder brother

Becurri- the Belgae king

Brude- Gracivas’ son

Cassian- the Roman who buys Loki

Cassivellaunus - king of the Catuvellauni, and leader of the Britani tribes in fighting Caesar's invasion

Deglan - Taexali king after Laufey

Dovoni- Taexali druid under Laufey

Drest- king of the Cavatii

Drusus- retired warrior hired to teach Marius and Aurelius military skills

Engus- the smith who teaches Thor metalworking

Faelan- a Taexali, in a relationship with Maedoc, another man

Farbauti- Loki's mother

Frigga- Thor's mother

Gallus- another slave at Cassian’s, a Roman who is kind to Loki

Gravicas- Saina’s brother

 Laufey- Loki's father, the Taexali king who goes to fight Caesar

Lucretia- Marius' older sister

Lugha- a druid from the north part of Taexali lands

Maedoc- a Taexali, in a relationship with Faelan, another man

 Maelo- the Sicambri king

Marcus Antonius- a Roman politician and member of the populist party; an ally of Caesar

Marius - Aurelius/Thor's friend and centurion

Odin- Thor's father

Oria- a girl who likes Loki, whom he eventually has sex with to pretend he's ok

Pidarnoin- king of the Venicones

Pompeius- leader of the patrician party

Porcinus- Cassian's steward

Prisca- Traianus' wife

Quintanus- the Praetor (a high official) of Gergovia, where Loki lives while a slave in Gaul

Regula- the prostitute with a reputation as a good teacher; she sees Marius and Aurelius

Regulus- a clerk in Gergovia, who sneaks information to Cassian

Ricati- over-king of the Caledonii

Ruadri- Farbauti's brother, Loki's foster-father

Saina- Becurri’s queen, a Brigante

 Sergius- Traianus' slave master

 Talorc- king of the Epidii

Thracius - the other centurion, with Marius, who led the battle in chapter 1

Traianus- the Roman who buys Thor

Valerius - commander of the legion invading Taexali lands

Vercingetorix- a king of a tribe of Gauls and leader of the attack on Gergovia

Vincinius Varinius- Lucretia's husband

Virgilia- the woman who tends Aurelius' back after he is whipped

Vuuno- Laufey's court filid

Wealhþeow- the widow who cares for Baldr and Thor after Frigga's death

 

_Tribes_

Belgae/British Belgae - a group of Germanic tribes from the area north of Gaul; some stayed there while some went to Great Britain and settled not far south of the Pritani

Caerini- one of the Caledonii tribes

Caledonians - the term the Romans use for the Pritani; it is take from the name for several western Pritani tribes

Caledonii- a group of western Pritani tribes

Caraci- a Brigante who marries Loki's cousin

 Catuvellauni- a Britani tribe

Cavatii- a Pritani tribe

Eilise- Loki's cousin, who marries Caraci, a Brigante, strengthening the relationship between their tribes

Epidii-  a Pritani tribe

Gauls - Celts who lived in the area of today's France

Keltoi - the Roman term for the Celts (the only term known for them)

Otho- an older legionary in the Gemina, who had been at Atuataca

Pritani - Celts who lived in northern Britain

Sicambri- a Germanic tribe who lived just east of the Rhine river

Taexali - a Pritani tribe on the east coast 

Venicones - a Pritani tribe who live south of the Taexali, also on the east coast

 

_ Dates and other notes (by chapter) _

Chapter 1: 34 BCE. Augustus had planned an invasion of Britain and cancelled it to send the army elsewhere; in this AU it actually happens. Rome did make several invasion attempts on the coast around the Taexali lands and those of their southern neighbors, the Venicones, so if the 34 attempt had really been made, this location would have been one of the places they considered.

Chapter 2: 

Thor's story- In 55 BCE, Caesar did build a bridge across the Rhine to attack Germania Major, and the Sicambri did fall to him. Maelo sending tribute slaves to Rome occurred later, however. I couldn't find an exact date, but it was sometime under Augustus, putting it probably between 27 BCE - 14 CE, maybe a year or two earlier.  The relationship between Rome and the Sicambri between these dates was considerably more complex than I've portrayed it. 

Loki's story- Celtic kings were expected to be physically perfect, because the perfection or flaws in their body were reflected in the health of the kingdom. Being a filid (pl. is fili) was a high-status job, though, it was a combination of poet and lawyer (later these tasks separated into different positions, but in the period this story is set, a filid had to do both roles). Upper-class children were not raised by their parents, but by other upper-class couples within the tribe/kingdom as a way of maintaining group cohesion.

Chapter 3: Still 55 BCE. The part about Caesar's invasion, in which he basically took a beach in Kent before retreating, is accurate, as is the part about Cassivellaunus and the Catuvellauni leading the battle when Caesar returned. I have no idea whether any northern tribes joined in that particular fight, though. The Taexali and the Venicones were the only northern tribes to make offerings of metal jewelry, as far as current archaeology has been able to learn.

Chapter 5- 54 BCE, Cassivellaunus did lead the combined British forces against Rome, according to Caesar, though his affilitation with the Catuvellauni is assumed by geography rather than stated definitely. Caesar overthrew him and installed a rival king as their ally, and the other tribes that allied with Cassivellaunus were forced to pay tribute. I didn't find a record of Rome taking slaves after this battle, but it seems likely, since they did after many other battles described in the same book, and Caesar records taking hostages.

Several Roman writers said that the Celts believed in reincarnation, which made them ferocious in battle since they didn't care if they died.

Caesar highlighted the fact that the British, except the people in Kent, did not eat bread, which was a big deal as it was viewed as the fuel of the Roman army and the source of their strength.  

Chapter 6: ends in 52 BCE, when several Gallic tribes joined to resist Rome, which I have heavily rewritten, basically reversing everything. Gergovia was a Gallic town, which the Romans attacked with a  scorched-earth campaign against Gergovia to weaken it. 

 Chapter 9: 50 BCE. Antony had been in Gaul, helping with the campaign against the rebelling Gauls, and formed an alliance with Caesar. When he returned to Rome, he continued this alliance as part of the Populares party. Pompey's own alliance with Caesar broke and he left the Populares to join the patrician Optimates.  

Chapter 10: Begins in 49 BCE, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon to invade Rome. Ends in 48 BCE when Caesar was almost defeated by Pompey's forces in Greece before having a conclusive victory.

Chapter 12: 44 BCE- Caesar elected himself dictator, and in March was killed by Brutus and Cassius. The fourteenth Gemina legion seems to be fuzzy, historically - some references I found said they were wiped out in a battle and later reformed, others say they were reduced and humiliated and were afterwards viewed as unlucky. Their emblem really was the lightning bolt, which was just too perfect, I couldn’t give Thor any other legion once I saw that.

I have no idea if hallucinogenic drugs were used in druidic rituals, but I recently read an article about psychologists using hallucinogens to help people deal with trauma, and thought it was worth Loki giving it a try. I just used foxglove because it was the first plant I found that was native to Britain and causes hallucinations. In reality it is much more dangerous and unpleasant than it is in my story.

 Chapter 13: from 43 BCE to the late 30's, taking them from about eighteen into their early twenties. 

The Gemina did have a terrible defeat at Atuataca, and it was a mix of the Eburones and the Sicambri that either destroyed or greatly reduced them. They were definitely in Gaul, near the border with Germania, the year after Thor’s abduction, and the way I described their interaction with the Sicambri was real. The torture described was one of the Emperor Tiberius' favorites, so it might be a little anachronistic, but it was definitely one enjoyed by Romans.

Chapter 14 (same as chapter 1): 34 BCE. Octavian/Augustus had planned an invasion of Britain and cancelled it to send the army elsewhere; in this AU it actually happens. Rome did make several invasion attempts on the coast around the Taexali lands and those of their southern neighbors, the Venicones, so if the 34 attempt had really been made, this location would have been one of the places they considered.

Chapter 23: The impression I've gotten (as a very amateur reader in this field) is that most of the sexual excesses we associate with Rome stem from the Empire, and that the Republic was reasonably uptight. One of their historians wrote disparagingly of the Celts that they preferred sex between men. I think this probably says more about Roman attitudes than it does about Celtic habits, but I decided to go with it on both counts - that the Celts were a-ok with it, and that the Romans looked down on it. And I'm just assuming that Thor would expect greater shame to be imbued to the receiving partner since it seems like every homophobic society is like that. 

Deglan's comment about 'the Romans taking the lowest in secret, while we take the highest in pride' is from a British woman who sneered at a Roman's attempt to shame her for not keeping her sexual affairs hidden. Sadly, I lost the link and can't say who it was. But I know she was a total badass and I love her.

 

 

 


End file.
